


Break My Chains And Free Me

by Write_Eat_Sleep_Repeat



Series: Teen Wolf Alternate Universes [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: ... - Freeform, Alternate Universe - No Hale Fire, Alternate Universe - Slavery, Alternate Universe - Werewolves Are Known, Asshole Rafael McCall, Awesome Melissa, Blood, Cages, Chains, Clothes Shopping, College Sucks, Dark, Deathly Extreme, Depressed Derek Hale, Derek gets raped, Derek has Nightmares, Derek-centric, Does anyone else hate Kate as much as I do?, Electrocution, Extreme Punishments, F/M, FREEDOM!, I apologise for future chapters, I still hate Kate more than I hate Rafael, I'm a horrid person, I'm not as bad as I thought I was, I'm the worst person in the world, Insomnia, It's just really dark, Kate is a bitch, Kid Scott, Lies, Loss of Identity, MUAHAHAHAHA, Malnutrition, Manipulation, Mountain Ash, Name-Calling, Nightmares, No wait...yes I am, Non-Graphic Rape in Chapter Four, OC-centric, Oblivious Scott McCall, Painfully slow build, Possible Future Self-harm, Rafael is a dick, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Short-lived freedom and happiness, Slow Build, Sorry Ashberry, Starvation, Suicidal Thoughts, The Author keeps dropping hints about the future, The tags for this are so dark that i can't tell between this and my Hannibal fic sometimes, Warning: Kate Argent, You guys are awesome though, a lot of blood, and laughs because the future of this is dark and painful, as always, poor baby, poor baby derek, really slow build, temporary paralysis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-05
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-02-19 23:44:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2407301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Write_Eat_Sleep_Repeat/pseuds/Write_Eat_Sleep_Repeat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Werewolves are vermin, that's what human children are brought up with. They are less than nothing and should be treated as such, any wolf should be a slave and nothing but, we do not speak to werewolves in the street, we tell a hunter or the Wolf Guards if we have knowledge of a werewolf who is not in captivity. So children are brought up to hate werewolves. All werewolves are kept in cages and treated like shit.</p><p>The Hales hid that they were werewolves, successfully, for years. Until Kate Argent happens and everyone in the family is captured. They are separated, tortured and sold off to horrible people. But maybe there's light in the dark. And maybe, for Derek, this light is in the form of a hyperactive spaz with a buzzcut and a different view to others.</p><p>(Future Sterek, but an awfully slow build. Seriously. It takes them over a decade to meet)<br/>(OC insert)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Where it all went wrong

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: There is a lot of violence in this fic, along with suicidal thoughts and many instances of rape of a girl between the ages of 8 and 18 which are frequently thought back on and rape of a boy in his teens until his early twentys. It's a very dark fic. I'm sorry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Hales are ruined, and Derek blames himself.

Werewolves were looked down upon since humans first found out about them. They were nothing, less than nothing, and were sold as slaves or killed for being born or bitten. Some families hid the fact that they were werewolves and some of them succeeded in it but the ones that didn't, well, they were tortured and sold.

* * *

The Hale family were one of the families that was happy and hiding. They hid the fact that they were wolves and the children had normal lives. The family was quite small. There were the two parents, four children and the children's Uncle Peter who had to live with them because he had no-where else. When Derek, the second eldest child, was 16 he fell for Kate Argent. Kate was older than him and was beautiful by anyone's standards. She was also brought up in a family of hunters who had caused many werewolves to be put into slavery. So it's fair to say that the Hales didn't approve of Derek's little crush and he fell out with almost everyone in his family because of it. The only person who stayed 'loyal' to him was Ashleigh. But she was only 6 and didn't understand that Kate wasn't a good person to their kind, and she adored her big brother more than anything. It was during Ashleigh's bedtime stories (which Derek was reading because Ash begged him) that there was a knock. It wasn't regular that someone would visit, because the Hales lived in the middle of the woods and kept to themselves, so Peter was a bit hesitant to open the door. Before he could even grab the handle, the door burst open and there were five gunshots from tranquilizer guns. The tranquilizers hit Talia, Cora, Laura, Peter and the Dad of the children. Derek got up quickly and picked up his little sister, who was quite small for her age, before running out of the window with her and running through the woods. He looked back every few minutes but never stopped running, taking random turns and never heading back towards his house. He got out of the woods and ran through the streets with Ashleigh in his arms and got quite far before a car stopped right in front of them. Kate got out and smirked at Derek before quickly shooting Ash with a tranquilizer and then shooting Derek in the back of the neck when he tried running.

Derek woke up in a small cage with a collar around his neck, there was no sight of anyone in his family. He couldn't sense them at all, no matter how hard he tried. He felt guilt wash over him, if he hadn't fallen for Kate then everything would have been ok. He would have lived as a human and everything would be normal. But no he just  **had** to fall for a human, a hunter. And now his family was probably going to be tortured and sold and Derek wasn't ignorant or dumb, he knew what happened to teenage female wolves who were sold and there was no way that he wanted that to happen to Cora or Laura or Ashleigh. He didn't even think about it, didn't want to, didn't want to know that that would definitely happen to his sisters. If he'd just been more careful.

* * *

Ashleigh woke up with a splitting headache and a fuzzy memory. She groaned and turned her head to stretch her stiff neck, seeing her mom when she did. Ash moved across the metal floor of the cage to get a bit closer to her mom "Mom, what happened? Where is everyone?" She said frantically when her Mom saw her "Mom."  
"Shh." Talia said, making Ash look confusedly at her.  
"But Mom... Argh!" Her sentence was broken off when a blast of electric went through the collar around her neck.  
"No talking." The shadowed figure of a man said to the young werewolf after she was just a whimpering tearful mess on the cold metal. When the guard was gone, Ashleigh whispered.  
"Mom." Talia didn't reply "Mom, I'm scared."  
"You'll be ok." Talia whispered, slipping her hand through the bars of her cage and into Ashleigh's cage. She stroked through Ashleigh's short black hair and didn't stop until the girl was asleep. Talia looked around when Ash was asleep and saw Laura and Cora just across from them. She managed a sorry smile at them and they mirrored it though it was obvious they were close to crying. They knew they shouldn't blame Derek, it wasn't his fault, but in that moment, they couldn't help thinking that, without Derek falling for Kate, they'd be safe and free and at home in their own warm rooms.


	2. Be good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last remaining Hale children are sold.

The next few months were hell. Ashleigh watched as her mother and sisters were tortured and eventually as her mother was sold off to a random place, watched as Cora was sold and then, finally, Laura so Ashleigh was the only Hale girl in that prison. Ashleigh celebrated her 7th birthday in a cage, all alone with no idea where her family was or if they were ok. She hadn't seen Derek or her father or her uncle in over six months and she almost didn't care. It's not like she'd ever see them again. And now her sisters and her mom were gone as well, there was no point, was there? All Ashleigh did from that point was curl up in her cage and pick at what little food the guards gave her. She was just waiting until she died, until she was free, so she starved herself. She didn't eat a single thing the guards gave her and eventually they had to sedate her and feed her through a drip. She gave up on that idea pretty soon after that because she knew there was no escape. There was only one thing she could do; be a good little wolf, get bought by some guy who wants a wolf as a pet to show off, and run the second it's possible. That was the plan. So she did that. She was a good little wolf and she did as she was told, even if she did have a few days where she was chained and muzzled like a rabid dog. Eventually, guards shouted through the door for the wolves to get presentable for a potential buyer. Ashleigh did a small thing of adjusting her hair and sit like a loyal puppy, on her knees and head down. She didn't look up even as the footsteps of two men came closer. There was the familiar heavy clod of the guard's giant metal toed boots (which she'd been on the receiving end of quite a few times) and a new tread. Men's shoes, slight heel, newly polished, leather, very expensive which is only to be expected because werewolves are quite costly. So, rich man with a good job wants a werewolf to do all his skivvy work, put a new record on because this one's getting old. Ash decided he would pick one of the other girls; one of the pretty, older, non-violent girls. The footsteps slowed and stopped in front of Ashleigh's cage "She's a bit violent, yea, but she's been behaving recently."  
"I was going to say she looks obedient. Look at me." Ashleigh looked up slowly. The man smiled a bit at her "How old is she?" He asked the guard.  
"Only just seven years old. So she could grow into a great wolf." Ash wanted to show just how much of a wolf she was by letting her eyes go golden but knew that she wouldn't be able to stop the wolf seeping out further.  
"I'll have her." The man said. Ashleigh looked down when the man gave a subtle gesture and she could hear his smirk "I'll definitely have her."

* * *

Derek was violent after he finally fully came to terms with the fact that it was all his fault and he had ruined his own life along with his family's. He spent most of the time there in chains and with a muzzle on because he was so violent. Every time a potential customer came the guards rushed them past Derek and hardly anyone asked why, with the chains and muzzle giving them a big idea of it. It turns out that Peter had been in the same 'prison' as Derek. He found that out about a month after waking up there. He'd seen two guards dragging Peter's unconscious body out to what was probably a medical room. I say 'had been' because the next thing Derek knew, Peter had broken out with just a small glance to his nephew. Since then, nothing. Peter was probably dead after that and Derek was back to square one of 'I caused this'. He ate because he had to, he slept as much as he could and he didn't misbehave when customers came over, even though he wanted to, because he didn't really like being electrocuted. But when the customers were gone, he gave the guards hell. On Ashleigh's 7th birthday, Derek thought of the present he had hidden for her to look for and he exhaled shakily at the thought of what was happening to his sisters. There was one day where he actually got more than three hours sleep and was close to the six-hour mark before he was rudely woken up with a loud clang against the metal of his cage "Lucky day, Hale. Someone actually wants to buy you." Derek looked at the guard confusedly before crawling out of the cage when the door was unlocked and opened. A leash, how degrading, was attached to Derek's electric collar and he was lead out to his new owner. His heart nearly flew out of his chest in fright at the sight of his master and he almost threw up at the mere thought of obeying him.  
"Derek." Gerard Argent said with a smirk "Nice to see you again. How's the family?"

* * *

Ashleigh was a good little Beta as the leash was attached to her collar, she didn't growl or bite and she followed obediently as the guard took her to her master. The other wolves, all females, looked at her as she walked down and they whispered at a volume only the other wolves could hear "Try not to cry in front of him." "No matter what, he's always right." "Never say no." "Take every punishment." With every piece of 'advice' Ash was breaking inside but she had a plan and she had to go through with it. Her master took the leash and smiled so kindly at her that her fear faded. If the plan failed, at least he'd be nice. Ash smiled back and looked to her feet like a good little wolf. She got into her new master's car and was quiet for the whole journey until her master let her out and took her into the house.  
"Now, Ashleigh." He smiled "Are you hungry?"  
"Not really." Ashleigh said just loud enough for him to hear. He gave her a look that showed he didn't believe her "I ate before I left."  
"I know what they feed you there. I'm making you something."

Ashleigh ate happily, while her master walked around and moved things. Ash only tensed when she saw the cage in the corner, quickly finishing the food and sighing. She knew not to trust humans, Uncle Peter always told her that whenever Ashleigh's friends came over. She knew that werewolves were nothing, she'd been to school and been through the routine. Werewolves are unnatural, werewolves are rabid animals who should be caged, werewolves are only good as slaves. Even thinking back on it, Ash felt tears prick at her eyes. Her best friends would know by now, know that she's a wolf and know that she's worthless "Ashleigh, are you ok?" Her master asked as he came over to her. Ashleigh nodded and decided to go along with the plan, that this man would never be kind to her even if he pretended to be.

* * *

Derek stomach turned. Gerard Argent, the man who'd condemned him to the hell of being caged up, couldn't handle the thought of not seeing Derek suffer so decided to buy him "Derek, you  **can** talk to me."  
"Fuck you." Derek growled. One of the guards stepped forwards to punish the wolf but Gerard held his hand up and the guard stopped.  
"Don't be rude."  
"Hypocrite." Derek said sourly, waiting for the shock of electric to go through the collar.  
"Off we go." Gerard grabbed the leash and tugged Derek towards the car. Derek got in the back and glared daggers at Gerard, willing the old man to just die in that moment "I didn't buy you for myself, Derek." Gerard finally said "You remember what day it is tomorrow?" How could he forget? Kate's birthday. And Gerard was giving Kate her very own werewolf. Great "Kate asked for you. It was either you or one of your pretty sisters but they were all sold out." Derek's head shot up at the mention of his sisters "Oh, you didn't know? Cora and Laura and Little Ashleigh, all sold off. Cora's apparently with some werewolf-rights activist, Laura works for a full-time working couple and Ashleigh was sold to some FBI agent about two days ago." So Cora, at least, would be safe. Derek lowered his head again. There was no sound in the car for Gerard apart from the purring engine but Derek could hear all of it. Every part of the machinery, the sound of the petrol in the tank, the noise of the pedals when Gerard put pressure on them. It was so different to the usual sounds Derek heard; wolves screaming in pain, just the heartbeats of other wolves and the shitty conversations of the guards.

He didn't savor them though. It would be useless to make them calm him down because nothing could calm him down from knowing that he'd have to serve and do whatever Kate wanted. Kate was just a no-no. She was the reason his family...No,  **he** was the reason. Only Derek. Kate was doing what she was brought up to do, hunt werewolves. Derek was brought up to hate humans, at least by Uncle Peter, and he saw the pet wolves of his teachers so that should have been a huge hint. Don't. Trust. Humans. He didn't look out of the unopened window at the scenery, didn't look up every time they came to a stop light, didn't do anything but look to his hands that were shackled in front of him and wonder if he could just reach over and slit Gerard's throat. He probably could, and he would, but that wouldn't help anything at all. He'd just be taken back to the Guard and punished, or taken to Kate and almost killed. It wouldn't achieve anything. He didn't look up when the car stopped and Gerard ordered him out. Instead, he stepped out and looked to his feet until Gerard tugged on the leash. When they got to the door, Gerard knocked and there were a few footsteps until the door opened and the horrid scent of Kate filled Derek's nostrils (to this day, Derek can't remember what she smelt like, he just knows that it involved either a type of L'Oreal shampoo or a flavored lip balm). He still didn't look up until Kate forced him to with a hand under his chin. He could have so easily bitten her hand off but he didn't want to cause trouble yet so he looked at her with a sour look "Hello puppy." She smiled in a way that made Derek's stomach churn.


	3. Be obedient

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ashleigh finds kindness, while Derek stays hateful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the Ashleigh parts are two days behind the Derek parts until mentioned otherwise.  
> Sorry for the long wait but I have a brilliant thing called procrastination and writer's block mixed with limited access to the computer, so I use my school's computers as well as my mum's one at home. And I'm not as proud of this chapter as I wanted to be.

Ashleigh woke up in a cage and she instantly thought that going out of that place was just a dream, but that was quickly shifted away when she moved and a soft blanket almost tickled her feet. She looked at the time and remembered her master's words  _"I need to be up and having breakfast by seven."_ It was 5:30 and there was no way, even with the blanket and pillow, that Ash was going to go back to sleep. Just no way on hell or earth she'd voluntarily close her eyes and sleep if she wasn't on the brink of exhaustion. She'd passed out in her cage at 1 am so...4 1/2 hours sleep was a record for her recently. She got out of the cage (unlocked, thankfully) and started quietly cleaning the kitchen. She finished that so cleaned the living room and then one of the closets downstairs and she was done by 6:25. So she started cooking her master's breakfast. She saw a note on the fridge that said what he usually had so she made that. At 6:50 she went nervously to her master's room, knocked on his door and looked in to see he was still asleep. She walked cautiously inside and kindly woke her master up. He groaned and opened one eye "I...I made breakfast." He looked at the clock; making Ashleigh look at it as well "You wanted to be downstairs by seven so I woke you up early so you'd be downstairs by..." Ashleigh rambled nervously  
"its fine, Ashleigh. You did as I asked." Ashleigh smiled nervously and looked at her feet.  
"I'll go downstairs and dish up the food." She said, turning and walking out with her head bowed. Her master walked downstairs at seven, all dressed up in a suit that seemed more expensive than all of the things he'd bought Ashleigh and it probably was, and Ashleigh was knelt on the floor by his chair when he sat down. He carded one hand through her hair once to thank her for being a good pet and then he started eating.

Ashleigh knew he was going to work at 7:30, staying there until about 8 pm and then he'd get home at about 9 pm. Between 8 am and 9 pm, a few people would come in to check on Ashleigh and make sure she'd done her chores. Her chores were to clean all of upstairs (apart from the office that had a sign on it), clean the carpets, make her master's bed, make sure all the laundry was washed and dried and basically be a non-stop slave. Her master had some food carefully picked out and put in a Tupperware container that had her name on it so she could have that whenever she wanted. She was to be in her cage with all the chores done before her master came home. If anyone just walked into the house, she was fine and safe and it was just a neighbor or her master's friend. He made sure to show her some pictures of them before he left so she'd know who to look out for. She nodded, all the chores and stuff listed in her head, and her master left for work, and left her with her hands and feet in shackles for the day.

* * *

Derek woke on the slightly warmed floor of his metal cage and he instantly got out to stretch. Kate would want to be up in...Four hours, at 11 am because she had no job and no-where to go. Derek decided that, with the absence of Kate, he would go and investigate the downstairs area that would be his home. He made sure to try and get his nose used to the putrid smell of Kate that repelled him, thanks to the memories he had because to it, but he couldn't bring himself to. The whole house just felt like torture, like it was trying to make him reach for his esophagus and pull. And he was so close to it, he'd do it just to get blood everywhere in Kate's kitchen and get her really pissed off. But, ya know, he'd be dead. And he'd never be able to find his sisters if he was dead. It was 7:20 by the time Derek was done with going around the lower floor and trying to feel like he should be there. He just succeeded in almost wolfing out because of a picture of Kate and her family. There was her brother Chris, her dad Gerard, Chris' then fiancé Victoria and little baby Allison. Allison was just a bit older than Ashleigh, Derek guessed by how old she looked and the date on the picture. Yea, she'd be about Ashleigh's age.

Thinking that lead to thinking about Ashleigh. She'd be 7 years and four months old and she'd be showing off that fact with extreme pride. She'd still be playing with her birthday toys and she'd only stop when her little human friends came over but carry on playing the second that the other children saw them. And the three kids would try their hardest to get Laura out of her room. Laura, she'd be in her room with whatever boyfriend it was this time and Mom would be keeping a scent out for anything happening below the waistline because "I'm not dumb, I have two other kids who do exactly the same things". But both Derek and Cora would remind their Mom that Derek is never like that, he'd rather stay in his room and read than stay in his room with a chick he liked. Cora would pick Ashleigh up and do airplane but it wouldn't be as good because "Derek spins faster, Derek can reach up higher, Derek doesn't make silly noises" and Cora would mumble something about sibling favoritism that everyone but the two humans would hear. Then Ash and one of her friends would stuff food in their faces to become hamsters and see who could drink their drinks faster and who could eat the most without hiccuping or getting a belly ache and the other friend would be saying it's disgusting. Derek was sure there were two. A boy and a girl? He knew that the boy had a ridiculous name that wasn't even a name and the girl was Ashleigh's super-uber-best friend (Ashleigh's words)

Kate woke up of her own accord at about 10:30 and the first thing she said was about how Derek hadn't made breakfast for her, which Derek wanted to snark back at by pure instinct. When he'd made Kate her breakfast and handed it to her ladyship, she patted his head like he was a dog and started talking "Everyone's coming over today, so you be a good little wolf and do what everyone says, don't talk at all and don't give them that look." Derek didn't even try to get the scowl off his face and Kate hit him across the back of the head which still didn't stop him scowling "Fine, be like that." She said, taking out the remote to Derek's collar "But you know what you'll be getting if you disobey." Derek nodded once to show he understood and then sat in silence while Kate ate and told him the plans for the day.

* * *

 

Ashleigh had just finished with upstairs by 11 am, with only one of her master's neighbors coming in at one point just to collect a package that she'd missed the previous day. It was 1 pm when she caught the scent of someone coming in and she mentally flipped through the images her master had shown her when she saw the woman. It was no-one he'd shown so she went into defensive mode "Calm down." The woman said "I'm Melissa, I'm his ex-wife, my son left some things here when he was last here and I'm just going to collect them."  
"Why should I believe you?" Ashleigh said, eyes narrowing.  
"You have no reason to, but you can call Rafael right now and find out." Ashleigh furrowed her brows a bit, was her master's name Rafael? It sounded weird "So, can I just get the stuff?" Ash hesitated but nodded, eyes flashing at Melissa in warning of what would happen if she was lying. Melissa's expression softened to one of worry but she went to a table and picked up a small bag off it "That's all I wanted." She looked around a bit and then at Ashleigh. The child thought she must look a mess. She only had one outfit that was filthy and her hands were shackled together, like she was a creature who couldn't be trusted "How old are you?"  
"Seven." Ashleigh said softly "My Master bought me yesterday." She shifted nervously "You should leave; Master didn't say that you'd-"  
"-You're only seven and you're a slave?"  
"Yes miss." Ashleigh said politely. She decided the woman may not leave so she went back to her chores, cleaning the carpet.  
"You're about as old as my son. Why did Rafael buy you?" Melissa sat down and Ashleigh shrugged.  
"I'm a young wolf, it means I'll be able to work longer." Ash worked hard on cleaning, the chains of her shackles clinking together as she moved "I'm just glad that my Master bought me."  
"You don't look it." Ashleigh looked at the woman and then back to the carpet.  
"But I am, Miss." Ashleigh said respectfully "My Master is kind, he gave me a blanket for my cage and he allowed me permission to eat when he isn't here."  
"Permission?" Melissa asked "You need permission to eat?" Ashleigh nodded but didn't say anything "You haven't eaten, have you?" Ashleigh's movements faltered and she shook her head "Why?"  
"I'm busy cleaning, Miss." Ashleigh said quietly "Being able to walk is a pleasure so I'll abuse it as I can, even if it's just to clean." The older woman, who reminded Ashleigh so much of her mom, gave her a sympathetic look and then got up, going to the kitchen "Miss, what are you doing?" Ashleigh tried to get up but tried too quickly and fell onto her knees, crying out slightly.  
"I'm getting you something to eat." Melissa said "You look starved." Ashleigh gave up and went back to cleaning. When Melissa came in with the food, she knelt by the child and made her pause "Can I..?" Ashleigh nodded once and Melissa lifted the child's chin up with two fingers and looked at the collar around her neck before moving her head to look either side. Melissa stroked her cheek with her thumb like Talia used to do. Ashleigh closed her eyes and put her hand on Melissa's, making the woman jump in shock. Ashleigh moved the second that Melissa jumped, worried.  
"I'm so sorry Miss. I just... My mom used to..." She tried to explain quickly, ducking her head down to prepare for any punishment she'd have to endure.  
"It's ok." Melissa put her hand back on Ashleigh's face and stroked her cheek again to calm the girl down. The child let a single tear trail down her face and Melissa wiped it away "It's ok."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, sorry for the huge delay, bruhs. I'll get the 4th chapter up...Sometime in the future.


	4. Be Realistic (You're never going to be free)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ashleigh gets her hopes up, and Derek's hopes come crashing down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realize that I didn't really expand on the 'Derek' part as much as the 'Ashleigh' but it's only because I'm sorta stuck on the chapters now. Inspiration isn't easy for me to come by for this. I literally just had this idea and rolled with it for extracts, when it came to the actual thing I was a bit unprepared :(  
> This is the same day as the last chapter (at least, at the start), I just had no idea how to continue it before and I wanted to post it before people lost faith in me ever updating. Bit counterproductive, huh?
> 
> (Big 'Thank you's to anna, who encouraged me to try and continue this after losing faith in it)

Because it was Kate's birthday, everyone was coming over to see her. Every single one of her hunter family and hunter friends would be in a room with Derek. He could see at least thirty ways this would go wrong, and most of them involved his death.  
But he kept quiet when everyone walked in, just sitting out of sight as Kate opened presents and everyone fawned over her "What did Dad get you?" Chris asked, making Kate smile almost wickedly. She beckoned and Derek hesitantly stepped out so everyone could see him. He was still wearing the clothes that the Guard had given him, a shabby shirt and slightly baggy shorts that made him look too frail, and he still looked like crap from the treatment at the hand of the Guard, the obvious concern for his physical health only because of the prospect of a buyer maybe choosing him and the bruises hidden under the clothes. His mental health, however...

"You remember Derek, right?" She said smugly. Derek tried glaring holes in Kate's head but no matter how much he willed it she wouldn't drop to the floor in a lifeless heap.  
"Holy shit." Chris muttered, not loud enough that his daughter might hear him but Derek, obviously, heard. Kate looked incredibly smug and Derek lowered his head in half-shame as tears welled in his eyes, tears that he'd never let slide down his face to show his vulnerability.

When everyone had gotten over the appearance of Derek, ignoring him point blank, he just stayed in the corner where no-one could see him. Allison walked closer to Derek, without her mom noticing, and held out half of a sandwich that she'd had. Derek looked at the food and then at the small child who was smiling at him sweetly. Surely this girl must have been told about werewolves, what with her whole family being hunters and all, but she was treating Derek like a person and not the slave that he was or the animal that werewolves were always said to be "Go on." The girl said with a small laugh, waving the food just slightly in a gesture for him to take it "You look hungry." Derek took the food with a small smile and muttered 'thank you' while Allison smiled widely and sweetly at him in return.  
"Allison!" Victoria said, only just noticing that her daughter was close to Derek. Derek quickly hid the food behind his back while the woman hurried over and grabbed her child's wrist "Don't talk to creatures like that." She said sternly as she dragged Allison away with a glare to Derek like he'd lured the girl over to him. The teen glared right back, allowing his golden eyes to shine at her. He almost smirked when her heartbeat sped up in fear, counting that as a victory against the hunters. Derek stayed hidden as he ate the half-sandwich, savouring it as a happy break from the shit food the Guard gave him.

He was lucky that no-one saw him eating, or else he might not be given food for days. He'd never gone without food for more than a day before the Kate Thing; his mom always forced him to, saying that a growing young man like him needs to keep up his eating habits to be healthy and strong in case he becomes an Alpha and has to lead a pack or just so he can look after his future family. Derek felt his eyes well up with tears again at the thought that he couldn't have a future family because he'd lost his current one but he blinked those tears away angrily with the reminder that it was his fault. He deserved all the suffering he could get.

* * *

Melissa had left a bit too early for Ashleigh's liking but the wolf daren't ask her to stay longer because she must have had better things to do than hang around with a werewolf, everyone has better things to do than hang around with werewolves. The girl finished all the chores surprisingly quickly, what with her limited movement, and she had nothing to do for half-an-hour until her Master got home. She sat on the floor, her legs crossed underneath her, and tested the give of the shackles on her arms. They were tight, but not bone-crushingly tight like some that the Guard put on her, and they were just as strong as the Guard's. Ash had never felt a metal that strong, she'd heard that there was hardly anything that a werewolf couldn't break, and she tried with the shackles but it just made her wrists rub against the metal and she might have cut herself on them. In utter boredom, she got a paperclip that she'd found and started scratching at the middle link in the chain which connected her foot-shackles just because. She thought she saw a powder on it but, before she could see it properly, she looked at the clock just to check and realised that she'd been so caught up in her own thoughts that she hadn't heated up Master's dinner. She'd made it early just so she wouldn't have to rush when He came home and it was simple just to put it in the microwave -even if she did have to go on her toes slightly to reach it- and put the timer to 4 minutes to heat it up. It was on the table when she heard her Master's car turn the corner and she was in her cage with her head bowed down, the paperclip hidden from view, when her Master walked into the house. He smiled slightly at the sight of everything cleaned, his food on the table and his wolf sat so perfectly in her cage. To a human observer he would have seemed almost smug, and Ash could smell that he was incredibly smug, as he sat down at the table and ate "Did you eat today?" He asked, the sudden break in the silence making Ash jump.  
"Yes sir." Ash said at a volume he could hear but still quietly  
"Good, I wouldn't want you passing out halfway through the day. It'd be a total waste of time." Ash just nodded in agreement to his bullshit statement and tried to do her best to reign in her wolf so she didn't go batshit at him.

He ate in silence and went about his normal business in his private office, all while Ash was curled up in her cage like a dog and left alone in the quiet with her thoughts. Thoughts of her family, of her two best friends, even of the mean boy at school who called her names. She missed them (Maybe not so much her bully, Jackson, but the others) and it hurt her so much to think about them. Her sisters must have been terrified but they'd try to be strong, that was just them, Mum was the alpha so she was obviously the strongest of them all, Dad would be scared (obviously) and Peter would...Ash didn't know what Peter would be like, even though she was his niece she wasn't that close to him. But Derek would be beating himself up about it, he'd blame himself for everything; for the attack, for not protecting the rest of his family, for failing to save Ash. Ash's hand started hurting, so she looked at it and saw there was blood trickling from her tightly closed fist. Oh yea, she'd been holding the paperclip still. Quickly, the child put the paperclip under her blanket and tried not to cry at the sting. Suddenly, a worse sting shot through her body at her neck and she cried out as her limbs spasmed and her body roughly hit the metal floor of the cage "Why-" She started to whimper but the collar shocked her again at a higher setting so she couldn't finish the sentence.  
"Sorry pet, I was just messing with it." Her Master said from the doorway with a smile that said he wasn't 'just messing with it'. Ash tried not to cry at the still lingering pain in her throat so she just curled up and forced down each sob which threatened to escape. Why would anyone get a wolf just to torture them like this? Kate should have just killed her when she had the chance.

That night, after her Master went to bed, she didn't fall asleep. Instead, she messed with the paperclip by drawing white patterns on her almost-white skin with it. One time, she almost broke the skin and the sting shocked her so much that she dropped the clip. That pain that she got felt so different to the electrocution. It felt almost...freeing.

* * *

Derek woke from his nightmare so violently that he was wolfed out and he almost tipped over his cage. It was the same nightmare he'd had since he'd been captured; being forced to watch his family tortured while he was knelt at Kate's side, the older woman telling him how it was all his fault and he did this to them. It ended with them all being killed right in front of him, their screams all mingling into a hellish dischord which he was sure would plague his mind forever.

It was 3am. He wasn't going to get back to sleep, so he just lay the only way that the cage allowed him to -curled up like a dog- and drifted in the gap between being concious and unconsious. Familiar thoughts floated through his mind, of killing Kate, of how much pain his family must have been in, of rippng himself apart and making the space around him look like a masacre to inconvinience his new 'keeper'. None of it made him feel better but he couldn't go to good memories and thoughts without it distorting into pain and hatred and self-pity which he felt he didn't need nor deserve.

4am, Kate came downstairs for a drink because she'd woken up thirsty. She'd woken pleasently, unlike Derek, and hardly payed him any attention as she got her water and went to her room.

8:30am, Derek got out of the cage. Kate was going out somewhere pretty early and, obviously, had no idea how alarm clocks work so Derek had to wake her. He made her breakfast and then wandered a bit, making sure he'd not missed anything the previous night when cleaning up, until quarter to 9 when he woke up Kate. He just kindly woke her, even though he'd love to pour cold water over her head, and informed her that her breakfast was done before going back downstairs and positioning himself next to the chair with his head bowed. Kate didn't take long coming downstairs and she patted his head, just to piss him off, as she sat down at the chair and started eating. She, between bites, told him her plans. She was going out with friends for most of the day, shopping probably, and would be back to check that he hadn't fucked anything up before setting off later that night, to probably hook up with some poor soul. Derek, of course, would stay at the house and do everything; clean Kate's clothes, do the ironing, clean the entire house, do the back garden, make sure Kate's hunting things were cleaned and loaded ready for the next hunt, and (less importantly) feed himself, have a very quick shower and do his *echem* business. Nothing too tricky, of course. **GOD** he just wanted to kill this bitch and get it over with.

He wasn't sure what time Kate left the house, since he was washing up after her (and himself, Kate had been nice and given him a plate of...He didn't know what, it was food so that was all that mattered), but the second that her car was out of earshot Derek set about doing his chores. It'd help busy his mind. He went to Kate's cluttered bedroom and collected all the laundry she couldn't be arsed to pick up before going back downstairs and putting the fabrics into the washer. While he waited for them to be clean, he cleaned Kate's room while cursing the bastards who made these damn mountain-ash chains. Seriously, it was bullshit how short they made them as well. As he was about to put (yet another) box of shoes with Kate's collection, a jolt of pain shot through him. The collar. Kate was probably checking that he was reminded what he was meant to do. As if he could forget. The work was meant to keep his mind busy but there were cracks in it, as if ghosts were in the room with him.  
" _MOM! Cora stole my bag again!" "No I didn't! Why would I want one of your bags, Laura?" "Because you're jealous?" "Of you? No way!" "Girls, girls, calm down. Laura, Cora didn't steal your bag." "Then where is it?" "Mommy, Mommy, look! I'm a big girl." "*Chuckle* Yes, you are, Ashleigh. There's your bag Laura." "I only borrowed it, sorry if you got mad." "Ask next time... Is that my makeup?" "*Cheeky grin laugh*" "Ohmy..."_  
Derek shook away that echo and hoped no more would appear in his head. He didn't need more ammo to hurt himself with, he had a lifetime of it.

* * *

Ashleigh woke up without the knowlege she'd been asleep, suddenly shocked concious by the collar. When she got over the initial pain, her mind cleared and she looked over to see her Master. He looked mad at her, and Ash looked at the time. Ohgod. He wasn't late to work, but he was late awake and Ashleigh hadn't done good "What time do you think it is, Ashleigh?" He said through gritted teeth.  
"I'm so sorry, Sir-" Another electric shock, a higher setting than the first.  
"THAT...is not the correct answer, is it?" Ashleigh whimpered as she shook her head "Only had you for a day and you're already mesing up." The girl looked at him in fear. He couldn't send her back, could he?  
"No, sir. I'm sorry, I didn't-" A third burst of electricity coursed through her and she let out a pained cry.  
"Speaking without permission again." Rafael sighed "You're lucky that you're young, mutt-" The nickname, so degrading, cut through the child like it was the sharpest diamond blade ever made "-Or I'd have called the Guard and had you sent back already. You get one more chance. Don't fuck it up." Ashleigh nodded once yet didn't babble the thanks that she wanted to, she didn't want to fuck it up. She couldn't be sent back there.

Eventually, Rafael set off for work and Ash was so thankful that she'd done everything the day previous, because it was only a short list that her Master left her. All she had to do was the laundry and clean the very few dishes that there were. She was so unthankful that there was only a short list, because there was nothing to do. She ate her pre-chosen food, out of boredhem more than hunger but it did fill a large hole, and just sat on the floor dong what she'd done the previous day, scratching at the metal of her foot-shackles with a paperclip. There was that powder again, and Ashleigh swiped her finger across it to closer investigate it. When she'd gotten it close to her eyes, she saw a familar golden shine and her eyes widened in fear. A family friend, and a man who believed in Were rights, had taught all of the Hale children important magical things. One of the things that Dr Deaton had mentioned, a tree which could be ground into a powder and had the magical capacity to weaken werewolves or to resist their strength, had sparkled just as this white powder had. The girl had to strain her memory to recall it but she eventually got it. Mountain-Ash. The chains had been forged with the powder, or at least the surface was coated in the stuff. If it was coming off when she scratched it...She worked more hurriedly and eventually tested the give of the shackles again. The middle chain, the one she'd been working at with the paperclip, creaked and strained sightly with the child's supernatural strength. Ashleigh's eyes widened and sparkled with happiness. She could be free.

* * *

Derek decided to do the garden before cleaning the rest of the house, because he wanted the fresh air, the feeling of the hot sun on his skin, the minute-long delusion that he was free. That perfect delusion was broken when a small shock jolted him out of his thoughts and back to the reality that he was outside to work, for Kate Argent. He weeded the guarden, mowed the grass, stayed outside just a second or so longer to relish the feeling of grass beneath his bare and aching feet. Then it was back into the house so he could clean everything else.

When Kate came in to check on him, he was cleaning the living room and she reminded him to eat as though it was a chore for her to say it (at least she does one chore). She also reminded him that he was allowed one shower, as long as he didn't use up all the hot water, and that if she was out of the house he could watch TV if he wanted to, as long as it was off before she came home. Then she was gone again.

He put her clothes in the drier, ate a very small something to keep himself alive and then went to have a shower. It really seemed like a luxoury, like Kate was maybe doing something nice for once, but that thought was dispelled from Derek's mind. If he starts thinking she's being nice to him, he'll be weak and she'll destroy him more than she already has so there's no point in even letting that thought cross his mind for even a second, how dumb is he? Derek happened to catch a glimpse of himself in the mirror just before he started the shower. It hadn't been long since he'd been captured yet he looked so different; he was thinner, so thin you could see his ribs, and his face was clouded and dark, untrusting. He was covered in sweat and grime and dirt, dust, a few spots of dried blood from god knows when. A shadow of his former self. He prised his gaze away from his reflection and closed the shower curtain as he turned the water on. The feeling of it, no matter how cold it was, made him sigh; it was so soothing and he didn't even remember the last time he'd washed. He didn't relish it too much and washed himself fairly quickly considering the chain restritions (and thank god the collars were waterproof), being out of the spray before the water had even properly gotten lukewarm.

The rest of the day, of the chores, went painfully slowly. He mindlessly trudged around while being Kate's skiv, an occasional and unexpected electric shock going through the collar whenever Kate got bored, a few faint echoes of old memories breaking the silence and making Derek think he was going insane. He daren't put the TV on, no matter what Kate said he was allowed, and instead went back into the bathroom to look at himself. He took off his still dirty shirt -he hadn't had permission to clean it- and prodded at his bones, almost able to see his heart pulsating in his ribcage, while thoughts went through his broken mind. Everyone else was like this, everyone in his family was malnourished and boney and weak (except maybe Cora, since she was with a Were-rights activist) and Derek's mind once again went to his self-depricating thought of how he'd doomed everyone to that. It was his own fault that they were in pain, starving, dying slowly. The voice saying those thoughts sounded like Kate, sounded smug and so proud of itself that it'd driven Derek insane in such a small amount of time. He didn't even realise his claws had extended until he felt warm blood trickle down his stomach, and then he looked down to where he'd cut a pretty deep line from his breastbone to beside his right nipple. The fact that he hadn't felt the pain, had been too caught up in hatred, said something about him but he was too ignorant to it to see. He was too angry, too busy grabbing a large ball of toilet tissue and wiping the blood away, pressing it to the wound until it got too bloodied and then replaced it as he healed fairly well, considering the fact that he was weakened. He healed fully, flushed away the evidence of his injury, got redressed fully and went downstairs. Kate had a few books, so Derek busied himself with organising and re-organising them until he found one that he might like to read so did. He heard Kate's car -able to tell it was Kate's because of the familiar stench of the woman- at the corner of the street so he put the book away and got into his cage. He closed the door and pretended to be asleep. He could see, through the slightly open livingroom door, as Kate stumbled in, drunk off her face and reeking of alcohol, with a stranger following after her. The strange man pinned her to a wall and kissed her deeply and clumsily while his hands trailed all over her body. Derek didn't care if Kate fucked a stranger, he wouldn't care if she fucked a homosidal serial killer who could only get off on strangling his victims, as long as she didn't have sex in front of him "Upstairs, my werewolf's in the other room."  
"And?" The stranger muttered "Who gives a shit, it's just an animal."  
"Yea, an animal I had to fuck to capture. Now, come on." She tried to kiss the brunet jackass with the dumbfuck glasses but he moved back.  
"You fucked a werewolf?" He asked, almost disgusted.  
"It's not like I wanted to." Kate sighed, and if that wasn't even more shitty to a still naive teen Derek's heart then I have no idea what could be "What? You'd rather he be still free out there?" The jackass moved away from Kate, not such a dumbass anyway, and gave her a repulsed look.  
"You still fucked a werewolf. That's...Eww." Kate grew suddenly angry and glared at the stranger.  
"As if you've never met anyone who's done it before. Why the fuck do you think female werewolves sell so good?" Derek felt a growl bubbling up but supressed it, because that would just mean more shit for him.  
"Ya know what, I'm gone. See ya Kate." The guy said, walking out.  
"No, don't go." She stood at the doorway and called out to him "Adrien! Adri...Oh what's the point?" The bitch mumbled as she slammed the door shut "Derek." She called "Get out here." Confused, the teen exited his cage and walked over to where Kate was. The woman looked over him and then sighed a bit "Get upstairs, in my bedroom." Derek felt sick. She was really going to expect him to fuck her? After what she just said? His hesetation angered Kate more and she held the remote up so that he could see it "Get. To. My. Bedroom." She ordered through gritted teeth and Derek had to comply. He walked up the stairs like it was the path to a giloutine, to his death, and entered the bedroom with Kate behind him "Strip." She ordered, slightly slurred but not too much, and Derek took off his baggy shirt and shorts to show that the Guard hadn't even given him underwear. Kate looked over his lanky form with some kind of disgust and muttered something about "I'm glad he washed today" before gesturing to the bed and for him to lie down.

People at his highschool, and he himself, had asked in pure confusion, how can a man be raped? You can't force it to work, can you? But as Derek lay there and had Kate manhandle him, had himself harden without his mind's approval, had Kate use him like he was there just for her drunken pleasure, he knew the answer to each question that he'd ever asked about it. Then he was cast aside, to his cage in the cold and dark kitchen, and he daren't even try to sleep. He didn't even pass out, regardless of all the work he'd done that day and how exhaused his limbs felt, because he didn't want to slip into the darkness he knew would have to end.

* * *

Ashleigh had scratched and scratched and scratched at that middle chain and she knew that the leg shackles would give out if she tried, but she wanted to do the same with the hand ones so they could free her hands and her feet at the same time. There was no time today to do that though. She had to be a good mutt until she was free, had to make Master's dinner for when he got home, had to be in her cage. A smile crossed her face as she made the food. Two days of slavery and she was already going to be free. She planned everything she was going to do. First, she'd run back home and pack all her stuff away and all of Dereks, and Laura's, and Cora's and everyone's and then she'd find them, even if she had to run all the way across the US she would find them. Then they could fly off somewhere and have a new life, without people judging them as wolves. Or maybe they could find a Wolf Shelter, where they look after werewolves and treat them like normal humans. She was so happy and caught up in her amazing fanticy that she almost burnt her Master's food.

She was a good wolf when Rafael got home; sat in her cage, food on the table, house spotless because she'd recleaned a lot of the place. Her master looked pleased "You really are being good now, aren't you?"  
"Yes sir." She said, voice slightly hoarse from disuse and a small smile on her face. Rafael opened the cage door and gestured for her to come out so he could undo the shackles. The girl held her breath when he took off her foot shackles, hoping he didn't somehow see that there was a difference with the middle chain link, and released it silently when he smiled at her and patted her head.  
"If you want, you can sit outside in the garden." He said, making Ashleigh's eyes widen and sparkle "Just until I call you in." She felt so excited, maybe she'd be able to run around or lay in the middle of the grass or...Or even run away! Her excited thoughts flew away when a chain was connected to her electric collar and it seemed she couldn't go right in the middle of the grass or run around, or away, but at least she could lay down and absorb some of the sunlight while it was still there. She hummed when she lay down on the soft grass, the blades tickling her bare arms and legs, the wind caressing her small body, heat from the sun bouncing off her pale skin and slightly darkening it so she didn't look quite ill anymore. She felt happier, content, like she could sleep there in the sunlight forever. This would be what it was like to be free again; just the wind and the feeling of the sun, or the cool rain, or the biting snow which reminded her of Christmas and Dad's terrible attempts at stories or jokes while Ashleigh herself tried to help with the cooking but Mom just asked her to make simple sandwiches. Everyone did say they were the best damn sandwiches that they'd ever tasted in their lives (The Damn part was always from Laura, who got in trouble for swearing in front of her parents and in front of little Ashleigh). When the snow fell outside, Ashleigh was always the first out no matter what she was wearing. She pelted everyone with badly formed snowballs which she'd made with her bare hands until her hands were almost blue. Cora used to walk over and put a hotwater bottle in the girl's small hands to warm them up before putting gloves on her with a stern "gloves keep your hands happy when it's cold", to which Ash replied with a large grin and a promice to remember next time. Ashleigh loved Christmas, it was a family time. A stiff wind reminded Ashleigh that it was actually Autumn, the leaves still turning golden-brown and falling to the ground, and she had the sudden urge to run now, so that she could have a family Christmas again. But the chain, mountain-ash again, anchored her to the reality, and the realisation that tomorrow she would be free.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Derek :(. Then again, what do you expect from a bitch like Kate?
> 
> Hey, did I tell you I have a Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Write-Eat-Sleep-Repeat/1450478055246192) and a Twitter (https://twitter.com/fangirl420) where I’ll update you on my procrastinatory shit?? No? Well…Yea, check it out :) (Only if you want to it's not really important much)


	5. Be fast (It won't make any difference)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ashleigh runs free, and Derek tries his hardest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna try and be quicker with these chapters, since people actually like them :3, and I do have a few more ideas. If anyone has suggestions for what they want to see then I'm all ears...and hands. Well, two of each but you get what I mean. Anywhose, onto the chapter.  
> (Still two days apart, I'm trying to get them to sync up. It might mean skipping a few Ash days, or squeezing two Derek days into one chapter but I'll get to it)

Ashleigh awoke on time, thankfully, and made her master's breakfast, feeling slightly groggy and her neck still aching from the electrocutions the day previous. For the first time since before Kate stole her life from her, there was no dark cloud hanging above her head nor any hate filled thoughts, because she knew that she'd be free. Hopefully, it'd be that day but if not then definitely the next. She woke her master and they went through the routine of her knelt at his feet while he absently told her what she should do. Which was practically nothing, but she expected that and smiled without him noticing, just if he tried to question her about her smile. When Raphael left the house, Ash instantly set about with the paperclip. She scratched and scratched at the middle link of her hand shackles, having to practically break her wrist to do it, until no more powder came off. It took about an hour or so and then she tested the give. The chain link snapped and Ash let out a laugh in relief as she spread her legs to break the foot shackles, laughing happily at that. She went to the back door and opened it, sighing happily at the feeling of the slightly cold air and the contrasting warmth of the sun. As her mom had taught her, she concentrated on something as her eyes shone a beautiful golden color and she wolfed out -just so that she didn't go wild. She thought of love; of her family -always so loyal to each other-, her bestie friendsies -they always made her feel so much better about everything-, of birthdays and Halloween and Easter and Christmas -everyone just together and playing about and laughing-, even of Jackson and his beautiful girlfriend Lydia, of just the warmth of everyone's smiles even when Laura and Derek used to argue -They made up after maybe five minutes, with small smiles and muttered 'love ya's- or Mom and Dad fell out -Dad used to come back with his tail between his legs and a gift that made Mom laugh and smile and kiss him. When she'd concentrated so hard that she could almost hear Mom sighing at the sight of Dad with a huge bunch of flowers and a look of 'I know I was a dick' (Ash had heard Laura say that to one of her friends, she didn't know what it meant but it must be something bad.), she fell to all fours and ran across the back garden, jumping over the fence and out into the woods. She knew where to go, just on pure instinct, and ran and ran and ran without stopping as she just relished the wind hitting her face and blowing her black hair out behind her.

She was free.

* * *

 

By the time that morning had come around, Derek still hadn't slept a wink. He was exhausted and felt disgusting, like he was dirty even though he'd washed the day before, and felt like just tearing himself apart. He'd have preferred it if Adrian **had** fucked Kate, even if it was right in front of him. Anything would have been better than what she'd done to him. He was almost in a trance as he made Kate her food, set her weapons out -she was going on a hunt that day- and went to wake her. Kate had a hangover, obviously, and didn’t even seem to remember what had happened as she went about her usual thing. Derek lowered his head and didn’t listen when Kate was speaking to him. He’d have nothing to do that day, so he had one idea. He had to escape, somehow, and he knew that he couldn’t run because he’d be found by Them. But he'd escape.

Kate ordered Derek to load the weapons into the car, which he did in a catatonic state, and then she was gone; the door was locked, there was nothing to do, Derek was alone. The teenager went upstairs to the bathroom and removed his scruffy shorts, unsheathing his claws. With a deep exhale to get his confidence up, he sliced through the skin of his right thigh. Crying out in pain, he started breathing deeply to try and press down the agony as he cut deeper and more blood spurted out. He carried on cutting, random points of his thigh, until he felt weak and he couldn’t tell where he’d cut anymore because of all the blood. He collapsed onto the floor, the pain and blood loss too much for him, and passed out in a pool of his own blood.

 _"Look at them, Derek." Kate ordered, making Derek just look further down to the floor "Look at them!" She grabbed a fistful of his hair and tugged his head up so that he had to watch. Had to watch as everyone in his family was strung up and beaten in various ways; electrocution, knives, whips, mountain ash rubbed into their wounds, brands...Anything you could think of, that was happening. Even to Cora, who was supposed to be safe. Even...Even to Ashleigh. She was only a little girl, who'd be so evil as to ignore her screaming for help? "Do you see what you've done to them?" Derek nodded, looking at them in fear as they all screamed for him to help them. The room smelt of their blood and their tears and it overwhelmed his senses._  
_"Please." He begged quietly, as though his begging would have more effect than the pleas of his family._  
 _"I can't stop it, Derek. Nothing can stop it. You're the one who made this happen to them." Then the blonde looked at someone, someone unseen by Derek, and suddenly an incoherent shout rang out. When the shout was done, the faceless torturers got out blades and stabbed each and every one of the Hale wolves in the heart. They all screamed, their shouts morphing into a hellish mangled cacophony which finally-_

-woke Derek up.

He woke, his leg and the floor covered in dried blood, and his first thought was that he had to clean up before Kate got back. Franticly, he got everything that he could think of to clean the floor and he started scrubbing it away with utter desperation. He cleaned his leg, thankful to see that he’d healed, and then made sure that nothing was out of place. His hands were trembling from the nightmare, from the blood loss, from everything and he was holding back the tears but a sudden and unwelcome recollection of just the image of his family...That broke his resolve and he collapsed to the floor while he cried, letting out almost a year's worth of tears in that moment, and muttered begging words for forgiveness from a family that would never hear him. A family that would never be free'd

* * *

Ashleigh ran. Just ran and ran and ran, non-stop for possibly hours. Raphael had probably come back and called the Guard but there was nothing that they could do about it. She howled recklessly, because she was free.

* * *

 

Rooms were re-cleaned, the books re-organised, a whole book finished and a new one started, and Derek could never remember ever wanting to hear a sibling fight or childish screams of joy so much in his life. Even the almost deranged muttering of 'humans are evil' from Uncle Peter would suffice to stop Derek wanting to rip himself open...again. He had a good reason for it, though. He knew he didn't have to justify his actions because no-one would ever know about them but he could practically hear his mother fussing over him. He'd done it to find the chip.

* * *

The second that the call had come in, they activated the chip. A blip went across the screen almost impossibly quickly and The Guard sent out the closest hunters to find the wolf who had escaped.

Ashleigh Hale was running straight into a trap, all because she'd never found out about her tracking chip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a bit disappointed with this one, but I couldn't improve it no matter how I tried.


	6. Take every punishment (No matter how brutal)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ash is caught, and punished.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm officially a fuck up. I'm sorry, but I've been just so busy with school and family issues and life that I just couldn't do anything properly without my mind wandering. And writer's block is a bitch.
> 
> Here's chapter six, not that good but none of these really are.

It had been days, hardly even a fortnight, since Ash had been captured but it seemed forever ago since she'd seen Derek. One of those days, let's call it day X, she'd been jabbed and had fallen asleep quickly, waking up a while later with a pain in the back of her neck and very stiff muscles. She couldn't move for hours, trapped not only in a cage but in her own motionless body. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't even move her eyes around to see what was going on while her mother was shouting and demanding to know what they'd done to her baby, only to get electrocuted for the noise. If Ash thought that the day Kate took her was scary, it was nothing compared to thinking that she was paralyzed permanently.

She had that feeling again. Just briefly, she had a feeling of everything good around her fading out like it had faded when her and Derek were running. A day. A single day. That's how long she'd been free from her master, and therefore from every bad thing in her life. She thought she was safe in that little cabin, but obviously she wasn’t. They’d burst in and dragged her out before stabbing her with a needle again. She'd woken up in the back of a truck, paralyzed, with two armed guards near her. The child couldn't turn her head, she couldn't open her mouth, she could hardly even breathe, so she just closed her eyes softly and prayed for death or even the Guard's cages. Anything but Raphael. How had they even found her? When the car pulled up, Ashleigh managed to move slightly; her breathing no longer hurting her, her toes managing to go as wild as they pleased. She'd give anything to be back in the Guard's cages. Sadly, Someone Up There wasn't feeling very sympathetic that day so the guards pulled her out and dragged her straight back into Raphael's house. She'd gotten the feeling back in most of her body so she kicked out and cried and made a big scene with people all down the street able to see but the collar sent a large shock through her body that even shocked the guards holding her, who dropped her and she whimpered in the pain. She was dragged across the floor and into the house by two guards, where she was dropped limply onto the carpet at the feet of Raphael. He was pissed. He was seriously pissed. She felt the hatred and the pain coursing through her before he even did anything. Then the door closed and all bets were off. Instantly, Raphael kicked her over onto her back properly as she tried to sit up “You filthy mutt.” He growled, seeming the most wolf-like out of both of them “I buy you and take you into my home, and you repay me like this?” He kicked her again, in the chest, and she cried out softly before growling at him with her eyes glowing golden. A shock went through her collar and she cried again, sobbing as she went limp against the floor. Again, he electrocuted her on a higher setting so she cried out again. A third time, on an even higher setting, and Ash could hardly breathe with how much it hurt and how much she was crying. Repeatedly, she felt shocks go through her and he didn’t stop at all no matter how much she cried.  
Even when she stopped crying altogether.

Even when she stopped breathing.

* * *

It didn't take long for Kate to come back from her hunt, and the day went in a blur of the usual bullshit until it came to bedtime. Bedtime used to have a love-hate relationship with Derek; he loved sleeping and hated waking up. You'd think that, seeing as he's a slave, he'd be thankful for whatever amount of sleep he could get but that was a load of bullshit. He didn't have anything like a blanket at all, just a constantly cold cage which was a little too small for him to curl up comfortably so he couldn't have a good sleep if he ever did sleep. When he did sleep, it was either scarily empty or filled with pain and hatred. He was actually mourning himself. In just a bit under a year. he'd gone from a chirpy and cheery teenager to...a shadow. That's cliché as fuck, to describe him as a shadow, but there's a reason that so many broken people are described as such -it's simply the best way to describe them. But anyway. That night, still haunted by the previous night and the nightmare he'd had earlier, Derek didn't even close his eyes longer than a blink. There was nothing good that would come of sleeping, since it'd be more mental torture for him. He'd never hated his cage more than that moment. It wasn't locked by Kate, but by an electric timer lock that locked itself at 11 PM and unlocked at 8 AM unless either command was overridden by Kate. That night, the That night that Derek was sure wouldn't be just one occurrence, Kate had overridden the command so that it locked when she heard him close the cage after she was finished with him. Maybe that would become routine, Derek thought with panic striking through him. He'd never be able to handle it if that happened again. He'd probably kill Her.

How much he wished he could kill her. He felt empty. Two days earlier, he'd felt sick and like a part of him had been ripped away.

* * *

As Laura was cleaning up the whole house, top to bottom with no dirt at all, she felt suddenly empty. She'd been empty for a long time, since she'd been pulled away from her little sister and seen the broken look in her sister's once vibrant eyes, but now she felt like she was about to emotionally turn into a black hole and destroy herself from the inside out. It felt like her family had been broken further than it had before, and she knew that only meant one thing.

Cora, lay in bed with her loving partner who had never said a bad word towards her about her species, suddenly had her heart drop to her feet. She gasped and tears started filling her eyes. The last time she'd felt like that, there'd been a family tragedy and...people didn't make it. Her boyfriend, lover, savior, whatever you wanted to call him, hugged her as she curled in on herself and started to cry. No matter how much he asked and tried to calm her down, she couldn't stop crying long enough to tell him what was wrong.

Talia had been flown to the other side of America, far away from home, and she felt like a part of her heart shriveled up and died. She couldn't cry, because the last time she did she'd been electrocuted, so she just let her hands tremble and let very soft tears trail down her cheeks as she stayed curled up in her cage. One of her children was dead, she could feel it, and she'd never got to say goodbye.

Peter was running. He was running around an abandoned home which was now his. He didn't feel ill, or hurt. He didn't feel a single thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's kinda short but I thought this was a good way to end it. Any and all critasism is taken with as much enthusiasm as I do anything.


	7. It's always your fault

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raphiel seems to change his mind while Kate is as bad as always.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here I am again my little friends, USB safe and life complete because of that. Let's get straight to it.
> 
> ALONSY!

She died while he electrocuted her.

Twice.

Each time, another electrocution started her heart and she had to deal with the fact that Raphael had almost set her free. If he had a heart, he would have stopped when she died. It might just be the one good thing he’d do for her in his entire life. But no, he just left her twitching on the ground with her being able to feel the flesh of her neck burning from the electricity. He walked out of the room while she was whimpering hoarsely and trembling uncontrollably on the floor. Her veins in her neck stuck out and had yellow bruises around most of them, her eyes were glazed with tears and she felt like she was going through the slowest and most painful death ever inflicted upon any living creature in existence even though she knew that this was not death but a torturous life. To anyone who didn’t have sharp eyesight, they’d probably have thought that she was dead because of how minute her trembles were and how silent her whimpering tears seemed. When she’d gotten over her tears and her pain, though she still ached all over, she stood and trudged softly towards her master’s office. Two tentative knocks were tapped onto the wooden door and then there were heavy footsteps that made Ash flinch with each noise. The door flung open with hidden aggression. Raphael stood there with an angry look on his face, the remote in his hand with his thumb on the button “What?” He asked hostilely and Ashleigh forced the croaked words out from her burnt throat.  
“I’m sorry.” Then she had to force herself to swallow, to try and ease the soreness with her saliva “I didn’t…” She was interrupted by her own violent coughs, where she was surprised that she didn’t cough out her singed voice box “I’m so sorry.” She said when she was done coughing, tears welling in her eyes again both because of fear and pain. When she did burst into tears again, Raphael didn’t stop his stony look at her “I just wanted to find my family.” The man looked at her, seeming slightly phased by her desperation to find her family.  
“Go get yourself cleaned up.” He said, unwilling to drop the stoicism towards his slave, and gestured towards the bathroom. Ash nodded again and walked off to the bathroom to clean up.

* * *

He should have slept. No matter what, he should have forced himself to sleep just so he wasn't just slightly more useful than a zombie that day. He'd gotten electrocuted three times before dinner, because of how drowsy he was. Somehow, that hadn't woken him up much. Kate, after getting over her initial aggression, just ignored him and did whatever she normally did. Which was very little. There wasn’t much to do, so Derek was forced in his cage and he just curled up and tried to sleep. Obviously, he didn’t get even a second. The black hole inside him refused to allow him sleep, his hunger and his emotional damage holding back the slumber that he so desperately craved almost as much as he craved the End. He was hungry to the point that his stomach didn't even grumble in protest to the void it contained, instead just accepting that it wouldn't get food no matter how loud it was. He was empty, in all senses of the word. He was emotionally drained, he was so hungry, he was...he was dead. The real Derek had died ages ago, after being taken from his family, after Peter had abandoned him, after he realised that he could never run because they'd put that fucking tracking chip in his body. He'd given up, decided it was best to...do as told, even if he sometimes freaked out because it got too much.

His cage creaked even though he wasn't moving, the lock was still showing the green light that said he could leave it whenever he wanted. What would he leave it into? Into the larger cage of Kate's house, where all it would take for him to leave was to open the door and run only for him to be caught by the Guard and dragged straight back? Although that light was meant to encourage a werewolf to leave the cage, it was also there to say 'sure, you can leave, but you cannot go away'. This was his fate now; curled up in a cramped cage inside a larger cage which was inside the fiery pits of hell, with Lady Satan herself there to laugh at him and use him for her own amusement in any way that she saw fit. He may sound like he's exaggerating, but just put yourself in his shoes. He doesn't know if his family are alive or dead, he is forced to live out his life forever with the bitch of a person who he thought he loved and who physically shot him in the back, he will never meet any member of his family **ever again**. Nothing he's thinking is dramatic, and probably nothing he ever thinks will be dramatic because this is more than an angsty teen, this is a teenager who has had his whole existence ruined. And it was his fault. Everything that everyone was going through was his fault. He **would** think that he'd be better off dead but he should be forced into this endless torture for what he did to his family, for what horrendous things were probably happening to them at that very moment.

* * *

The way that the water pounded against Ashleigh's skin gave her a strange calm. Even though it was stupidly cold and not even her naturally increased body heat could keep her from juddering, it was soothing to know that all the grime and stains from godknowswhat was flowing off her tiny body with each water droplet. No tension or pain fell from her along with the grossness, not with the bruises on her neck still refusing to fade or with the slight twitches that caused her to drop the soap or almost whack her head against the pastel-blue tiled wall, but the cleansing was pleasant because it had been quite a while since she'd felt water. When she turned the shower off, slightly awkwardly since her little hand kept on slipping on the knob, she stepped out and expected to have to quickly dry herself and then put back on her disgusting clothes but there was no sign of the rags. Instead, there was a towel on the rack with a small note on it that she picked up to read, causing it to get wet on the bottom. It was from Raphael, who must have come in while she was showering, telling her that he'd put her clothes in the washing machine and she was to make herself as decent as possible with the towel. The girl placed the paper onto the lid of the toilet and then picked up the towel, letting it unfold in her small hands and tumble to the floor. She took the top corners and then wrapped it around herself just like when she was back at home. It was a bit harder to do than when she was at home, because she was a lot thinner so she had to almost double-wrap it around herself and it was awkward to turn it so she could keep it up by holding it under her armpits. When she'd managed to cover herself, she hesitantly left the bathroom and walked downstairs. Ash was cautious on the stairs, because she didn't want to slip and hurt herself, so she made sure to hold onto the rail with one hand and the towel with the other while going down slowly.

Raphael was in the living room, which surprised Ashleigh, and he looked over briefly when she entered the room before he did a double take. With her attire, he could see that the bruising around her veins -though it had faded by that time- went below her collar as well to the point that it was almost on her pale shoulders. Because of the almost paper-whiteness of her skin and the fact that her bones were quite noticeable, Raphael seemed to take slight pity on the girl. He stood and walked over to where she hadn't moved from the doorway in very slight shock, a strangely sympathetic and almost caring look on his face "Are you hungry, Ashleigh? I doubt that you've eaten anything all day."  
"N-No, sir." Ashleigh muttered meekly as she was slightly caught off guard at his sudden worry over her health, since he didn't seem to care when he was electrocuting her literally to death.  
"Then I'll make you something." He smiled and Ashleigh looked just very slightly suspicious. This man had actually killed her, though she didn't really know that at the time, so she had a right to be just a bit confused as to why he just suddenly wanted to nurture her at this moment. Maybe, though very unlikely so, he had a change of heart in the few minutes it took her to shower and come downstairs. Either way, there was no way that Ashleigh was turning down food in the state she was in "Hotdogs ok for you?" He asked chirpily and Ashleigh nodded wordlessly while she clutched the towel tightly to her flat chest. The man stood up and walked into the kitchen, stroking a hand through the girl's wet hair as though she was a pet. Because she was so touch starved, that slightly degrading touch seemed like an almost blessing to her, which is kinda sad when you think about it. She never used to be touch starved. Even when she was kept by the Guard, she still had her mother reaching through the bars to calm her down. But then Talia was taken away, so Ashleigh wasn't calmed down anymore. That’s when she had her dips. Her extreme crying fits and her severe bouts of anger and violence. But those got shocked out of her after a while, and she never had the energy to cry after a while. The noise she made when Raphael touched her hair was almost non-existent and sounded suspiciously like a cat, which made no sense since she would be more likened to a dog with both her species and how she acted. Her mum always called her a puppy because she was the youngest and she was very hyperactive and affectionate and sometimes she’d break something and just look really guilty until someone found out about it, so everyone knew when she’d done something. She broke a lot of things, mainly because she was a very clumsy girl and there were slight dips and raises in the floor of the house.

She loved her home. She loved the fact that it was in the woods, and that there was the best view of the night sky from her bedroom, and that it had so many hidey holes, and that there were secrets all around the woods that her siblings told her about and would probably still be telling her about in her teen years…if she’d been allowed to stay there until her teen years. She wasn’t naïve, she knew why she wasn’t allowed to stay in their home but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t upset about it.  
The thing that she loved the most about her house was her bedroom. It was the smallest room -because Cora and Laura shared a room, and Mom and Dad shared a room and Derek had his own room and Peter had a special room that wasn’t in the house- but she didn’t care because she found a hidden spot. There was a small door in her closet where she hid all her secret things that no-one could ever find, and she loved to hide there as well since she was so small. When they were playing Hide and Seek, sometimes she hid there and the others would always be confused because her scent implicated that she was in the closet yet she was never there. To further confuse them, she sometimes put her shoes somewhere else in the house so that they’d find them first and get their hopes up. That’s why she was the hide and seek champion. Her room was so nice anyway. The walls were blue and the carpet was so fluffy, with a big toy box pushed against the wall so she could put her teddies and her dolls in there along with a few books that wouldn’t fit anywhere else. She kept that room neat and tidy because she took pride in it. Unless her friends were staying over. Then her room was like a bombsite because her and her two besties just messed it up royally.

She loved her friends.

Feeling uncomfortable just alone in the living room, she followed Raphael into the kitchen and sat on one of the chairs at the fancy kitchen island while he cooked. When her mom cooked, everyone stayed in the dining room no matter how long it would take. They'd just babble and laugh and argue, it was fun. But then Derek got a girlfriend. She was bigger than him, and Mom and Dad didn't like that and Uncle Peter refused to let anyone talk about her; he used to say rude words about her which Ashleigh never understood but knew they were bad because of how mom reacted. Ash liked Kate. Kate was smiley and funny and always gave her biscuits, which she called 'Scooby Snax' like from the show. Mom never liked that. But anyway. Raphael didn't seem to mind that she was there, so Ash just swung her legs absently and looked around. It wasn't like she didn't know the layout of the kitchen, because she saw it all the time in her cage, but it just gave her something to do and made her absorb her surroundings better. For example, she didn't know until that some of the blue tiles on the wall by the oven were a slightly darker blue than others or that the glass on the cupboard doors wasn't totally clear see-through (it had a soft light blue tint). Although she found out these things, none of it made it feel like she was closer to belonging there. The prospect of the slavery thing was fairly simple in Ashleigh's little mind; busy rich people buy a werewolf to do their chores that they can't (or won’t) do, which makes the werewolf theirs so therefore that werewolf was meant to be in their house. She didn't fully get a few parts of that at that point. Instead of racking her brain for the answers, she had just decided that it was something she'd automatically learn when she became an adult (or a teenager) but she didn't need to understand it yet. Her mind kept on drifting away to when she was still allowed to live at home, and that always made her upset when she realised that it would stay as daydreams. Her neck still tingled, in a bad way. Raphael should have just let her go. He was rich enough to get another wolf. How did they even find her?

* * *

A plate clanked against the hard floor, snapping Derek from his daydream and into the reality that there was food in front of him. Before he had the chance to say thank you, which he wouldn't do anyway, Kate had walked to her own meal at the table. Derek opened the cage door and ate the food slowly to savour it. A burger. Normal burger, no cheese or ketchup, but it was so nice. It was warm, which was more than Derek could ever hope for because the Guard never bothered with hot meals. Why would they waste time giving them hot meals when they’d settle for something suspiciously like dog food? But the slight warmth of the burger seemed to heat Derek up totally and a noise a bit too animalistic to be human slipped from his throat without him meaning to. Kate smirked –every time Derek looked back on memories of her, he realised she never smiled even when they were ‘happy’ together- and stood to walk over and pat him on the head like a dog. He could have bit her hand off right there but what good would it do? It'd give him nothing but pain. Maybe a little bit of satisfaction, but then a load of pain afterwards. When she touched him, he flinched very obviously and she seemed a lot more...proud of herself, because she'd made him literally a cowering mess.

He used to be so affectionate, when everything was better. He told everyone (other than Uncle Peter, who refused affection from everyone) that he loved them, every day, and everyone got hugs whenever they needed them. Ash always called him a cuddlebear and was almost constantly attached to him whenever they were around each other. The Hales were a close family, always had been, and it was probably because of Talia and how distant her family had been. It seemed Peter never shared that idea, intent on sharing the cold that they'd shown. Sometimes, though, they saw the ice chip away; like when the girls put makeup on Dad and they all did a mock fashion show to make mom laugh, or the many times Ashleigh walked sleepily over to him and babbled only to fall asleep on his lap.  
With Kate, there was no ice cold. Only Hellfire.  
Derek had a few friends in high school, no-one who knew about what he really was, and they all said he was a really nice guy. His teachers liked him, he was part of the baseball team, he did well, he had a few girlfriends before Kate...He had everything before Kate. Now all he had was Kate, and a cage. He didn't even have any proper clothes. Everyone used to joke about his clothes being as bright as a solar eclipse, but now they were just a soiled brownish color. There was even less color in his life now. At least, when he was back home, he had the lush green woods and the bright color of his room, the sunshine, the brightness that seemed to radiate off his family. Now, just greys and browns. Worse than blackness.


	8. It doesn't matter who you are...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A stranger taunts Derek, and Ashleigh goes shopping for a new look.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear that I'm trying to be good. It's just that college is taking a lot out of me and I have very little spare time. All free time is spent trying to do chapters though, I assure you.

He used to be Derek Hale. He used to be a sporty and friendly kid, he used to be chirpy and smiley. Now he was just a werewolf. Just a slave because he was born with something different about him. Kate could address him however she wanted and he would answer non-verbally because his name meant nothing anymore. Derek Hale, for all anyone knew, had never existed. Whatever reputation he had built up with his friends and the people around him was now destroyed and replaced with bright red letters spelling out his species. He was more than a werewolf, but no-one cared about his personality anymore. They'd see the collar around his neck and disregard him as a member of society. From the day that the Hale family had been captured, their personalities had been chipped away until they were nothing. The horror stories of what happens to werewolves were, at best, under-emphasised. Kate was all he saw, day in and day out. Her family were very rare additions, but he never left the house and he never saw anyone but Kate. He was starting to forget things at night, the only time where he had time to try and remember, and it was like some things had to be made up by him. He knew what his family was like, but their faces faded a little bit more from his mind every day. The thing that plagued his mind was the last time he saw his family. Most of them had last looked at him with a fond smile as Ashleigh dragged him upstairs while begging him to read a story to her and put on silly voices, but his last memory of Peter was him running away without a second or caring glance. His last memory of Ashleigh was her whimpers of fear and feeling her little body go limp in his arms even as he tried to hide her from the huntress.  
He’d prefer the Guard, at least there were other werewolves around for him to see.

Kate had taken him out one day, Friday, with a leash on his collar and his hands chained together. He'd expected a short walk in a derogatory fashion before Kate took him back home while degradingly mocking Derek with questions like "Did pup like his walkies?" But no. She walked him through the nearby park, nodding civilly to someone else with their wolf, to a small group of houses. The woman knocked twice on the door of the third house. It was a normal house really; two storey, bland curtains, dark-blue and slightly worn door. Proud Hunter Association sticker in the window. Derek felt his claws lengthen in anger. He'd have preferred the mockery to this. Who'd know what sick meetings went on here, with vile talk of werewolves and how to 'rightly treat the things'. And Kate had decided to bring him here "Get that pout off your fucking face, kid." Kate sighed "Neither of us really want to be here." That gave Derek some level of intrigue and, just as Kate had turned back to the door, the door swung open and they were met with a stranger's face. His face was long and bony, his hair curled, eyes dark and hollow yet they seemed to shine with some level of emotion when he saw Derek. Normally the wolf could tell what someone was feeling but not this man. He was...strange. He seemed both glad to see Derek and disgusted at the sight of him  
"Kate." He said as a greeting as he looked back at the huntress "Nice of you to come."  
"Did I have any choice?" The woman sighed and the stranger chuckled softly.  
"Not in the slightest. I see you brought **your** Hale. Come in." He stepped aside and allowed Kate and Derek to enter.

* * *

Two days later, her master was still different. He was still nice and kind and he seemed to care. Though glad that this development had taken place, she was very cautious and made sure that everything she did was perfect so he wouldn’t suddenly turn on her. That day, Wednesday, he’d managed to have a day off work (he said it was slow there and he wasn’t needed). She’d done what she usually did, made his breakfast and knelt beside him on a pillow -a recent addition- while he read the newspaper aloud to her, but this day was different. After her master had finished his food, he took a small jacket from the closet and handed it to the wolf with an order to put it on. It was a boy’s jacket and, though it was small, it was so big on her that she felt almost smothered by the fabric. The man also handed her trainers, yet again those of a boy, and she tried her hardest to tie the laces but she’d never been taught. With a soft and almost fond sigh, her master crouched down and tied her laces for her before he put his own shoes and jacket on and brandished a chain leash. The leash was attached to the small loop on her collar and then they set off.

“Master?” She asked meekly as they walked down the street. It wasn’t rare to see werewolves being ‘walked’ by their owners, since they were classed as either slaves or pets depending on who you asked, but Ash was stiff and hid as much as she could beside her master with the sudden feeling that people were watching her. She must have looked terrible; ratty (though clean) clothes, boy clothing on her, arms and legs as thin as chicken bones, her face so thin that her chin was almost pointed (though she looked healthier than before her master bought her), and a chain connecting her to her master as though she would dare run away after last time. She didn’t know how the Guard had found her, but they had and she was never trying to run again.  
“Yes, Ashleigh?” Raphael replied softly, caringly.  
“Where are we going?” Another wolf with their master walked past, looking so downtrodden and tortured. He looked even worse than Ashleigh did, mainly because he was much older and taller yet almost as thin as she. He had bruises all over his body, wearing clothes that seemed old and that hardly covered his battered form. Ash didn’t look at him for long, feeling extreme pity for him and worry that she would turn into him one day.  
“We’re going shopping.” Was his simple reply and he didn’t elaborate. Ashleigh nodded once and didn’t ask any more questions. The walk wasn’t long, yet Ash still wondered why he didn’t take the car. Maybe it was so that she could spend some time in the fresh air and have more exercise than walking around the house. Her one joy, other than the feeling of the wind against her body, was that she was walking without the shackles. She could take much longed-for steps and stretch her legs out properly, and Raphael must have known that she yearned for it. Their first shop was a clothes shop. To be more specific, a children’s clothes shop.  
“Master?” Ashleigh mumbled in confusion and Raphael smiled softly at her.  
“We’re going to get you some clothes, whatever you want.” The child’s brow furrowed confusedly “You’ve had those clothes for much too long, you need other things to wear.” Ashleigh was about to object, not wanting her Master to feel like she was being too...high-maintenance, but he was having none of it "I won't let you say anything other than 'May I have this?', and that is final." The girl nodded, though her acceptance was more from fear than gratitude. She _was_ gracious, but worried. Why would he be nice to her? But as she entered the shop beside her master, she didn't really care why. She just wanted some clothes other than the once-cream coloured outfit she'd been in since day 1. Raphael took the leash off her, confusing the child until she realized that there would be nowhere to run. She was in public, and her master had the remote for the collar still in his hand, so she just slowly walked around with her owner following her, the girl occasionally asking if she could have a certain item of clothing while Raphael mostly agreed or gave alternate suggestions. She didn't ask for much; three pairs of jeans, a few shirts, a floaty skirt, a fluffy jumper, a pair of slip-on shoes and a summer dress, though her master reminded her that she needed underwear as well to be clean. Her master seemed happy to buy her those things and he stuffed the leash into his jacket pocket so that he could pay. As he took his wallet out, after the cashier had scanned everything, the woman looked at Ashleigh.  
"Treating your wolf, sir? She said and Raphael nodded once "Hardly hear of a wolf being treated. It must be real obedient." Raphael smiled widely.  
"Oh, it is. Best wolf I ever had. Aren't you, Pup?" Ash smiled softly. Master had called her Mutt and Wolf before. Never Pup. While still insulting, it somehow felt softer than any of the others. It was kinda true. Papa and Momma called her Pup, maybe that's why the word hugged her tightly and made her feel fuzzy and warm inside.  
"Yes sir." She said meekly, and the cashier gave her a weird look and 'mhm'd slightly. Raphael took the carrier bag in his left hand and then gestured for Ashleigh to follow him. When they left the shop, he pulled his right hand from his pocket and Ashleigh expected a leash to be put on her collar so that she couldn't go too far. But he didn't.

* * *

The house was... alright. It was just a normal house, decorated with miscellaneous paintings and pictures of a family. The wallpaper was plain, the curtains and chairs matching  in fabric patterns, generic throws and pillows. The weird thing was, this wasn't their host's house. Their host was an obviously well-paid man, judging by his unnecessarily expensive suit and real-leather shoes, and this was just a basic working class family's house. He was also not on  a single picture around the house. Yet he seemed to own this place. Maybe not literally, but his power certainly must have compelled the owners of this abode to sacrifice it for this meeting "Now, Kate, We are ever so thankful to your family for the work you've done for us." Kate sighed.  
"Get on with it, I have things to do." Their 'friend's face hardened to a stoic glare.  
"Your work with the Hales was amazing." He said, blatantly ignoring the anger of Kate "I mean, 7 wolves in one go. Almost unheard of. And you never said how you figured it out."  
"I just know." Kate snarled. Derek, meanwhile had been sat awkwardly for a while, his eyes nervously flicking between his owner and this stranger that she apparently knew. Said stranger looked at the wolf with a slight hatred that Derek had come to expect.  
"So, Derek. How was the Guard?"  
"Torturous." His voice was slightly hourse since he hadn't spoken for a while, but no-one actually cared. The man chuckled softly and nodded ever so slightly.  
"Well, that was the point of them." He said with an almost happy sigh "My granddad was a Guard. My dad was a hunter. I took my family up one more level. Part of the FBI's elite hunting group." Derek felt his anger come bubbling up closer to the surface yet not explode out more than showing on his face "I have my own little wolf as well. Little girl, so sweet and cute. Tiny little thing, she is. So obedient, after I showed her what happens when she tries to run." An almost evil grin crossed his thin face as he observed Derek in his vulnerable state "I think you might know her. Tiny naive little creature. Called Ashleigh." Derek's eyes glowed in anger as he started to turn in front of both of these dangerous and heartless people. No-one hurts his family, no-one tortures his family.

* * *

He didn't put the leash back on her. He gripped her hand softly and started walking.

 


	9. ...It Doesn't Matter How Long It Takes...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rafael is desperate, Derek is furious, Kate loves her wolf's pain, and Ashleigh is sure that things will change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Derek time is still two days ahead of Ashleigh time. I need reminding of that sometimes as well.

Ash didn’t expect his hands to be so soft. She had no true idea what his high-paying job was, but she expected every owner of a wolf to have harsh and rough hands as though it was a requirement to own others. The men that she’d seen when she was caged, who came to buy girls like her, always had harsh hushed voices and rough hands and loud shoes no matter what their jobs were. But her master had soft hands, perfectly kept clean and maintained just how he wanted them. He was totally immaculate in every way possible, from his hair to his shoes. Then again, Ashleigh took pride in the recent care of those shoes. She’d never really been one to polish and clean shoes before, especially not so expensive and with such risk behind them, but she’d picked up on it and her master seemed just as pleased with her work as she did. They walked back home, hand in hand, and Raphael told her to sit on the couch while he locked up and did whatever he needed to. Ashleigh took off her shoes and jacket, making sure to tuck the laces in so they weren’t uselessly dangling to the floor, and put both upon her knee since she hadn’t been told that she could move from the couch. When her master came back to her, he just took the items and put them away to her surprise, before he sat beside her with the plastic bag from the shop. He took the clothes out and gently laid them on the coffee table in front of the two, placing the shoes by the girl’s feet “What do you want to wear, pup?” He asked and stroked his hand through her hair. It had gotten long, and she didn’t like that. She always wanted it kept short, because she didn’t like the feeling when her mom was brushing it since it got so tangled, but she hadn’t the courage to ask her master if she could have it cut. Her eyes went to the clothes on the table. She liked them all, and she looked at her master with a silent question for permission to stand up. A nod allowed her to take the two small steps forward to the table, where she picked up a navy blue pair of jeans and the shirt that she’d got to remind her of the colour that her mother’s eyes went on the full moon. She loved the full moon at home, and there was one coming soon. She knew this, could feel it when it was night-time and her inner being wanted to claw out and howl. She tried not to let it, using the same thing that her whole family used as a leash on themselves. It had a special name but Ashleigh didn’t remember it, so she just knew it as the swirling lines. On the full moon, she'd be less able to suppress it. She tried her hardest to not think about what happens on full moons, because in the hands of the Guard she'd hurt herself. Being trapped in a cage wasn’t how any wolf was meant to be on the full moon. As gentle fingers caressed the fabric of the shirt, she wondered if her hands were soft. She always tried to keep them soft when she was with her family, by doing what Laura did and using (maybe a bit too much in her case) moisturiser on them, but since she left them she hadn't the time to do anything special like that. She worked a lot with her hands now, so she wondered if that would make her hands rough and hard. She hoped not. She didn't want to have hands like the men who took other girls.

With a nod from Raphael, she scuttled to the bathroom and undressed before putting her new clothes on and checking how they fit. The jeans were okay, just a bit on the big side, and the shirt wasn't as baggy as she'd expected. She loved it, spinning and flicking the edge of the shirt up as she relished the feeling of clean and soft fabric on her body. She left the bathroom and pattered downstairs excitedly to proudly show off to her master what she looked like. She jumped into the living-room, a huge smile on her face and her arms up in the air. But Rafael wasn't there, so she walked with a bit less energy to the kitchen and looked around for him. She was sure that he must be downstairs since she hadn't heard him walk upstairs. Then the unused dining room where he was on the phone, pacing slightly and smelling like impatience "Please, Melissa. He's my son, can't I just...Well, having Ashleigh shouldn't change anything...She does what I can't because I'm too busy." He sighed heavily "I'm not abusing...It's either she works in my house and gets a home, or she stays in captivity with the guard." Ashleigh, unseen by her master, tried to focus on what Melissa was saying. She hadn't the chance to use her advanced hearing recently, so she had slight difficulty.  
_"She doesn't get a home with you. I've been over, I've seen her. You shouldn't be putting her to work, you should be taking her to school."_  
"She's a wolf. That's not how we treat them."  
_"Well, maybe we should start. I'm not going to let Scott come over if you're still treating her like an animal."_ Ashleigh frowned. Her master wasn't treating her like an animal. Her master bought her clothes, and allowed her to walk around, and let her shower. She'd heard of people doing so much worse. The guard had done so much worse.  
"I'm not treating her like an animal." Rafael sighed heavily.  
_"I saw the cage, in the kitchen. She's a child, and you put her in a cage? That isn't humane."_  
"I've...I've changed that. I've stopped treating her like that." A deep disbelieving sigh from Melissa "Why not come over and see? She tried to run, and I realised that I can't treat her like that so I changed it." Ashleigh was confused. She was still sleeping in the cage, so he was lying. But maybe he'd change that soon. She hoped so.  
_"FIne. I'll come over tomorrow."_ Rafael sighed out a smile.  
"And then you'll let me see Scott?"  
_"I'll consider it."_ The woman sighed  _"I'll see you tomorrow."_  
"Bye, Melissa." Then he hung up and smiled at the idea of seeing his son again. Melissa was usually a lot more accepting of him seeing his boy, but since she walked in and saw Ashleigh that had changed. She hadn't even allowed him to speak to Scott because of how disgusted she was with him. He should have expected it. Melissa wasn't an activist, but she was a hard believer that werewolves are still people regardless of their actions on the full moon and she'd been like that since before Rafael had ever gotten his job. She was very against it, and it was one of many reasons that their marriage failed. All he wanted was to see Scott, no matter what.

* * *

Melissa put the phone down and sighed heavily, running her hands through her hair before she looked at the time. Almost time to pick Scott up from school, and after that she had to wait for the babysitter so she could go to work. Though she hated Rafael's job, she couldn't deny that it had been easier to live when they were together but she was not going to stay in a toxic relationship for the reason of economical stability. She could work and look after Scott, her hours didn't mean that he lost out on any time with her. She thought about Ashleigh, about how this was someone's little girl and how someone was thinking about her the same as Melissa thought about Scott; worried for their well-being, hoping that they were being treated right, wishing to spend more time with them. But Melissa could do all that and still see Scott at the end of the day. Whoever was Ashleigh's mother didn't have that luxury and Melissa knew that she would never feel the pain that Ashleigh's mother did. With a sigh, she only hoped that Rafael was telling the truth about treating Ash right and making her feel less like a slave and a useless creature and more like a child. Giving her an appropriate education would be impossible, with the collar around her neck that would most likely never be removed and couldn't be removed by Rafael. She'd probably be legally his slave for the rest of her life. Unless something horrible happened to either of them.

Melissa waited outside school for Scott's class and saw him walking out with Stiles, both of them joking about. The boys were practically brothers and they spent all the time they could together. But Stiles saw his dad waiting for him, which was a rarity, and ran over with a hurried goodbye to Scott, who looked around for his mom afterwards. When his eyes caught on her, he ran over and hugged her like he hadn't seen her for weeks rather than hours "Hi honey." Melissa smiled and Scott smiled "How was your day?" She asked as they started walking off to the car.  
"It was so cool. We were playing knights, me and Stiles, and he was chasing me around and we were fighting with sticks and Isaac was the king that I had to try and kill because I wanted to be king." Melissa nodded along with everything he was saying "And I fell over!" Scott exclaimed almost proudly, rolling up the leg of his jeans and showing his mother his injury.  
"Oh, baby." Melissa frowned but Scott wasn't phased by it.  
"Do werewolves heal?" He asked suddenly, shocking his mother "Because when I went to get a plaster, Stiles said that it would be cool to be a werewolf because they heal really quick but I thought that was rubbish." Scott jumped into the car and fastened his seat belt while Melissa got in as well.  
"Werewolves do heal most injuries faster than we do." Scott's jaw dropped.  
"Like a broken bone?"  
"Yea, a lot faster than we do." Her son smiled widely.  
"Cool. I wish I was a werewolf." And, internally, Melissa said "No you don't, darling." What she actually said? Nothing. She just turned the radio on and took him home while he kept on talking about his day. Nothing about what he'd learnt, just about what he'd done while he was meant to be learning. Some days, she wondered if he ever paid attention.

* * *

"What did you do to her?" Derek growled and the suited bastard smirked.  
"She's alive, don't worry. She just tried to run a while ago. I had to punish her, but she's all healed up and pretty now." Seeing the possible hope in Derek's eyes, of seeing his baby sister, Rafael decided to crush that shimmer "She's busy at my home, getting everything ready for my son to come over tomorrow now that the full moon's ended. She's a very obedient girl since she came home." Kate just sat back and watched the interaction between monster and werewolf, a smirk playing across her features.  
"You're a sick bastard."  
"I've given your sister a home, Derek. Be thankful." The full moon had been the night before, he was very antsy anyway at being denied to fun around, and Rafael was almost close enough to being ripped apart by the teen "But that's not what I want to talk about, as fun as it is to see your pup try and hold back his claws." Rafael looked back at Kate "Thanks to the hard work of your family, catching so many of these things, we thought you should be honoured."  
"We?" Kate asked and tugged back on Derek's leash so that he was further away from the elder man, so Rafael was just out of reach "Sounds ominous."  
"Oh, no-one dodgy. No...classified things. Just the official government-run Hunter's Association. A ceremony, in your honour, commemorating all your successes in capturing wolves. You've done the country a service, truly."Kate pondered it and looked at Derek, who was glaring a hole into Rafael's skull.  
"I'll ask my family, see if they're up for it, and I'll get back to you." Rafael nodded his understanding and sighed.  
"I'm sure that you will." He said with a smile and then decided to go into more details

They spoke for what seemed like hours to Derek, about things he cared little about, and the wolf just glared at him through it all, fantasizing about leaping over and ripping him apart before doing the same to Kate so he could run and be free to find Ash. HE only came out of the scarily disturbing scene when Kate tugged gently at his leash. Raphael was looking at him, smiling "I'll give Ashleigh your love." He purred and Derek felt like jumping across the room and ripping his throat out.  A monster like Rafael, who buys a  **child** , should never be able to speak her name at all. Kate forced him to stand, tugging him from the room while his eyes were still trained on Rafael in a blood chilling glare.   
"Hear that, Der'?" Kate asked smugly as they walked back to her place "The Argents being honoured." The Argents, in Derek's mind, should never be honoured. So many people's lives ruined because of them, and not just the wolves but the people who helped these wolves as well. The people who helped werewolves, they were locked up and branded as a threat. Most of the time the wolves were family, friends, lovers, and all the lovers of the werewolves were accused of being dog fuckers. Even Kate had grimaced in disgust at the occasional were/human relationships on reality TV, considering what she'd done. But that's Kate for you. 

Led back to Kate's house, Derek didn't say a word nor make even an acknowledging noise when Kate was speaking. He now knew the face of the bastard who had one of his sisters, and he had a plan. Rip out the tracking chip, find the stranger, get Ashleigh and take her chip out. Then find a place to hide out before they can find the others. It was almost perfect, if only for the issue that he didn't know the name of the suited bastard who had his sister. He'd find her. She couldn't be far away, so he'd be restless until he had her back. He knelt by Kate's chair as she cooked, by her side as she ate and gave him the worst and cheapest food she could find, while his mind came up with an elaborate fantasy of living happily again with his family. They could be happy and normal, albeit on the run. He needed a way to take the chip out, take Ashleigh's chip out, and either hide or remove their collars or otherwise damage them to make sure that their captors couldn't decide to trigger heart failure by mass-electric shock. He'd heard of such instances, where 'masters' took the punishing too far and killed their wolves. The worry that those things happened, could happen to him or his family, ate Derek up inside. But he had made it his mission now to find them and become the Hale family again, and he needed it as a goal because he needed something. He needed an excuse not to destroy his body so that he could never lay his eyes on Kate again, he needed a future to need. My god, did he need a future.  
Kate went to watch TV, but he hadn't been given permission to stand or to move. So he stayed, like a good pup, with his head bowed to the floor and his face deadly neutral. He could feel Kate watching him, could smell how smug she was that he was an obedient little wolf for her, but she said nothing because this was her sick little game and they both knew it. She loved having this power over him because she hated him. Didn't hate him enough to want him out of her sight, or her bed. At that thought, he cringed and flinched. They'd been together in that way many times before his captivity and he always felt like he wasn't good enough for her to get pleasure from. She never seemed to be enjoying anything during the time, and Derek always asked if she wanted him to deal with her (though he said it more politely and nervously) but she always declined. It had given him quite extreme anxiety that he wasn't going to be enough for her. He'd asked many times if she was happy, and she always laughed and avoided he question. He was so stupid, thinking that a huntress could love him no matter if she knew of his secret or not, but he'd been so sure that he could have her attention and her love that he didn't really care how stupid he was being. But now he knew, and now he was paying for it. Most teens have a relationship that they regret, have a person that they wish they'd never met, but hardly anyone has to do all that while stuck with the very person that they regret ever touching. But he knew that he could never be free from Kate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter, or the one after that, will be horrible to Ash.


End file.
